To The Moon Minisode 2 Is Really Very Good

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To The Moon [official site] remains one of RPS’s favourite games. If all the tears this game has caused around the world were put in one place, that place would be a new ocean. Saltier than the Dead Sea. A lovely, charming, and deeply moving thing, about a pair of scientists who change a dying person’s memories to give them the life they’d always wanted, it has already been followed by one “minisode”. A free extra bit, simply called Holiday Special Minisode, it intelligently explored the relationship between the original game’s lead characters, as well as shining new light on the ethics of the company for which they work.

Cor. Cor blimey, it’s really good. Like the previous one, there’s not an enormous amount of choice, but the story that plays out continues where the last left off, and is properly intriguing. Last time doctors Neil and Eva were trapped in the offices of Sigmund on Christmas Day by a snowstorm, with protesters outside, creating a little bottle episode that gave more background to the morally questionable service the company provides. This picks up after the protesters finally leave, and the snow eases off, and staff start making their way back to homes for Christmas dinner. And I can’t really say more, other than that it sets up an awful lot of interesting possibilities for the long-awaited sequel. If you’re a To The Moon fan, then this is essential. If you’re not, then you need to be playing To The Moon so you’ll be one.

By the way, you can respond to the freeness of the episode by donating toward a fund for one of the pixel artists at Freebird who is currently hospitalised with cancer. Jordan, a pixel artist on all the Freebird games, has been diagnosed with cancer, and is receiving some intensive chemotherapy. There are details in the game for how you can help out, should you want to.

20 Comments

I’m going to be pi$$ed if it all hinges on the crashed car at the beginning of TTM. :)

Mind you, TTM suits an episodic approach, as bingeing on it for several hours at a time can get a bit, whisper it, boring.

A lovely, moving game, but the dangling strings of various plot-points (the crashed car, which son was which, and choosing your scientist/dream-doctor) had me waiting for things that didn’t pan out. Still I’ll check this out. I’m hoping lightening strikes twice, rather than turns into that Bird thing.

In TTM, the word comes up in a really jarring, oh-come-on-nobody-talks-like-that sort of way. It comes across like a word the author thought might provoke a reaction but didn’t really understand, which was my problem with it. Personally I didn’t really think the game worked, so, you know, opinions.

For the record though, I do think To the Moon would be vastly improved by taking elements from Dynasty Warriors. If only we could literally hack and slash our way through the clouded mazes of someone’s memories before obliterating the entirety of their existence for the sake of one last pre-mortem emotional orgasm.

I sort of thing there are too many games sometimes… here we have yet another game I meant to play yonks ago, but I don’t see myself finishing up my current games within 100 hours of play. By then I will probably have forgotten again. Thank god RPS reminds me now and then…

If you’re the type that enjoys being IN a game and letting it tell you it’s story, you would do well to play To The Moon. It’s one of the few story games (and expanding media a bit, movies and books) that impacted me on an emotional level. Mass Effect series, Portal series, The Mars Trilogy and movie adaptation of Contact all had their moments that grabbed you by the feels and squeezed, sometimes painfully hard. With TTM, assuming you do play it, the late-game twist was unbearable (What are you doing!? No! Please stop! Nonono! OMG you monster! D-: ) and the ending is one of the simplest and best. Beautiful and crushingly sad.

Really though? Do we have to categorise things as ‘games’ and ‘not games’? Sure, you have games like Quake Live which are arcade experiences, but what is something like Broken Age, or Samorost, or in fact quite a bit of adventure gaming, if not an interactive story or interactive art?

So, I just read that back and it sounds very grumpy at you, hantheman, which wasn’t my intention! Sorry about that! I’m just ticked off at this whole ‘Blah isn’t a game’ attitude which seems to be about these days!